Working the plan

It has been a while since we updated everyone, but we wanted to give you the latest news from our homefront.

The kids are doing pretty well. It is amazing how much progress we've seen in the last few weeks. Ruthie is picking up a lot of English. She understands probably 75% of what we say to her, and she can communicate most of what she needs to, either through gestures or words. She loves to watch Dora the Explorer, so she's even picking up a bit of Spanish. :) She loves to swing and jump on the trampoline, and she really enjoys playing with Elliott's nerf guns and his legos. Her favorite thing by far though, is her baby doll. She feeds it, changes it's diaper, and plays with it on and off throughout the day. This should tell you something, but she named her baby "Seth."

Seth (the real Seth) is also developing rapidly. He feeds himself now, and he has strong opinions about what he wants and doesn't want. Today he officially said his first word: "gentle." He likes to hit us when we are holding him, so we've been trying to get him to learn the difference between gentle touches and less-gentle touches. Today, he repeated the word "gentle." Super cool. He has repeated us before (like when he yelled "Go, Elliott!" at a soccer game, but this was the first time he has spoken a word in proper context and with a clear understanding of what he was saying.

We've had several meetings and evaluations with different therapists for him: physical, occupational, speech and the like. Last week we all got together for a big meeting to discuss a plan to coordinate all these services for Seth. We're hoping to get him "caught up" to where a 20 month old could and should be. We've seen so much progress already that we have a lot of confidence that he'll continue to advance, especially with some focused therapy sessions. It was so encouraging for us to hear all these ladies excited to work with him and with us.

We're working on the same process with Ruthie, but have some other evaluations to go before a formal plan is crafted. We'll update on her later. In the meantime, both the kids are adjusting well to life in our family. Seth hates the car, which is unfortunate, because we've been driving all over town to soccer practices and games and swim practice and meets. Ruthie has enjoyed cheering for her siblings and rolling down the hill adjacent to the soccer fields. She is full of energy and life, and we've had a lot of fun with both of them.

All in all, we are very blessed. Thanks for your continued love and support.

Medical Update

Well, we promised you updates, and now we finally have some things to share with everyone. We've had some good adjustments since we got home. Ruthie is learning English at light speed, and seems to understand a lot, even if she doesn't say a lot. She'll chime in with gibberish English at family meals, just so she can be a part of the conversation. It is pretty fun to hear her. It is also fun to hear yourself echoed back. We try to be very clear when talking to her, giving her clear commands, etc. But, when she talks to us or to the other kids, she gives those same commands ("look at me" or "don't touch") which just makes her sound bossy. We're working on that. 

Seth, too, has been progressing by leaps and bounds. We took him to the doctor, who was surprised that a baby this healthy looking had CP. He checked out as a healthy kid, even though he is behind on some milestones. But, we're hooked up with the early childhood intervention people, and they'll start some speech and motor therapy with him soon, so we're hoping that will help a lot. For now, we're just staying the course. It is incredible, though, because almost every day he learns a new skill or makes an advance. He is getting more mobile each day. He is really gaining personality, too, laughing a lot and crying loudly when we hurt his feelings. He has a fake cry and a real cry. Today, he refused to eat baby food, just wanting to eat what we were eating. He will mimic sounds that we make and actions we do. Having him is like having an infant in fast forward, working through all the new "tricks" so rapidly.

As to Ruthie, we were of course most anxious to get her to a doctor. We set up an appointment at Children's Hospital in Seattle at the beginning of this past week. The doctor saw her and right away wanted an MRI and a biopsy of her eye area. He felt sure there was cancer, it was just a matter of learning what type and how advanced.

So, they ran those tests and told us to plan for aggressive chemo and radiation. The oncologist even said he might consider stem cell transplants. Needless to say, we were discouraged. Of course we had been preparing our hearts for the worst, but hoping for the best. It was hard to hear that we might be facing the worst.

We got the MRI results, and there was indeed a mass behind her eye socket. So, they did a biopsy to investigate it. That meant two procedures in two days for Ruthie, and two bouts of anesthesia. Through it all she was a real trooper. We weren't quite so brave. We had a couple of sleepless nights, anxious to hear the full story. Throughout the adoption process, we really prayed repeatedly for God to just have His way with our family. The whole process defied logic, and we just wanted God to be at the center of it and for Him to use our family however He wanted. Still, praying that is one thing, but living the grim reality of it is something else all together.

Then came today. The oncologist called to cancel the appointment we had next week in order to discuss treatment options. That was a little confusing, but he said that after looking at the biopsy, it seems the mass behind her eye wasn't malignant. In fact, it wasn't even cancer! It turns out that it was something that formed when she was born, and it is not cancerous at all. Of course we were overwhelmed with this news, and are still stunned. Now, the biggest thing we have to deal with is an infection she got as a result of her biopsy. (The infection did land us an overnight stay in the hospital while they pumped her full of antibiotics). He canceled the appointment, because she is cancer free. What an amazing relief.

We'll continue to monitor her, of course, and we're working towards a prosthetic eye for her. For now, we are just so grateful to God for both our kids. We know that he has big plans for them, and for our family. Our prayer is simply that He would be glorified in our lives.

So for now, we're just watching this infection closely and celebrating what God is doing. Please pray for it to heal quickly for Ruthie. She looks pretty miserable. But we are so thankful she is ok.

News from the Homefront

Wanted to create a quick update now that we are home and getting settled in. First of all, thanks for all the encouraging comments we got both on the blog and in person. And, we really appreciate all your prayers for us, then and now.

Now that we are home, we are slowly beginning to settle in. During the daytime, things are going really well. Of course, it helps that almost everyone can sleep in late. 

Our biggest challenge at this point is at night. Both Seth and Ruthie are having trouble sleeping. Certainly they can't be blamed for having trouble, as indeed we are all having some trouble. We know it will just take some time, but being up until 3am with a cranky baby every night is tough. Seth has been very restless each night, and Ruthie has struggled to relax at night. Still, we know things could be a lot worse, so we're trying to keep a good perspective.

A lot of people have asked about their health. We were working to get them fully lined up on our health insurance before we left. While we were in China, we were told that they need to see proof of their immigration status before they could be on the insurance. Of course, we didn't have that until we arrived in the States, so we've now got that taken care of. Hopefully in a couple of weeks the kids will be fully lined up. Really, it is a blessing in disguise, perhaps, so that the kids have some good time to adjust before things get more difficult for them. Obviously, we're anxious to get them seen by specialists.

Not sure how frequently we'll be blogging from here on out, but we'll try to keep everyone updated on the big stuff. And, we'll try to get some more pics posted, too.

Landed in Portland...

...and Seth just used up his last diaper. So, all that is left is to make a quick pit stop and drive home!

Landed in Seattle

Had a long couple of flights, but we made it. America has two new citizens now.

In a couple of hours we'll fly to Portland and then drive home...

In Transit

We made it to Hong Kong. Too tired to blog and too cheap to pay for internet. :)

We're at the HK airport awaiting our flight to Tokyo. Continue to pray for us.

Day 20

Our last full day in Guangzhou was also one of the most interesting.

The day started off simply enough. We had our consulate appointment. It was a big deal, but not a big deal. It's a big deal because this appointment means that we can fly home with the children we came to get. Since they are Chinese citizens, they have to get a visa from the US government that allows them to immigrate to the US on a permanent basis. It was no big deal because it went so smoothly.

Before our appointment, we went back to the doctor to have Seth checked for the measles. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that in the lobby of this building, which apparently hosts more than just a medical clinic, they have a wine vending machine. They had about 6 bottles that were small, roughly half the size of a normal bottle of wine, and you could swipe your card and hit the streets with some vino. Never seen that before.

Seth's appointment was simple, and he is measles free, as we knew he would be. After that, we walked down the block to the consulate. The kids thought it was cool when we told them that as soon as they walked in the building they were on American soil. I told them they should ask if there is a Chick-fil-a on site. At the appointment we turned in the paperwork, and tomorrow afternoon we'll pick up the kids' visas. Hopefully we won't have any problems, because we're checking out of our hotel, going to pick up the visas, and then heading straight to Hong Kong. We'll fly out the day after.

After the appointment, Kris went down to the hotel's business center in order to straighten something out with our plane tickets. The kids names on their Chinese passports don't exactly match the names we used to buy their tickets, so we needed to call and get their names edited. Seems simple enough, right? Well, one hour later we wrestled around with the United Airlines employee and finally got everything settled. She said initially that Seth's ticket was cancelled, which was news to us. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that she won't be receiving any Christmas cards from our family this year. If she actually did what she said she did, everything should be fine, but I'm prepared to experience some surprises at the airport.

Speaking of surprises, our guide had told us that the business office would help you make phone calls to confirm your flights and that sort of thing. Since this call was more complicated than that, I made if myself, which might have been where I went wrong. I started to walk out of the office and the lady asked for our room number. I wondered why and she said, "So we can bill you for the call." Well, turns out that calling an 800 number from the business center costs about 10 yuan per minute. So, all time I sat on hold made the phone call cost about $100. That made me even more mad, since I really should have been able to change the names on the website. But, if it gets us out of China and back home, then it will be worth it.

In the afternoon, the kids went swimming, and Ruthie really had a great time. She let Kris take her all around the pool. The other kids were playing Marco Polo, and she kept yelling "polo" and laughing. She has picked up some fun English words, but she still will talk our ears off in Chinese, even though it is a very one-sided conversation. Tonight, Hannah taught her to say "cray cray." She still will randomly say "belly button" for no reason at all.

In the evening, we met the rest of our group and took a dinner boat cruise on the Pearl River. There must have been a full moon or something, because things got strange pretty much right away. For starters, Seth had been in a really good mood all day. Anne saw that his little teeth had poked through, and he was pretty content. But when we got on the bus to go to the boat area, he started screaming. All these other families with their newly adopted kids and everybody is driving peacefully, except our boy. We took a group photo all together, and he cried during that. I can't wait to see a copy of it. So, we knew that it was going to be a long boat ride, but at that point there was no turning back.

When we got to the boat dock, strangely nothing was in English. So many things here are in both English and Chinese, and you would think with a tourist attraction like this there would be English, but there wasn't. Our guide told us which boat to get on, luckily, because there were several choices.

While on the boat, a voice over the loudspeaker gave instructions in Chinese while an employee modeled the life vest for us. Again, no English, so we were glad that we didn't need the life vests, because we wouldn't have known what to do. The boat ride included a dinner buffet, and at some point after the life vest instructions the voice must have said "it is time to eat" because suddenly everyone on the boat who could understand Chinese jumped out of their seats and ran to the buffet. Needless to say, we were not first in line.

One odd cultural difference between China and the US is that no one waits in line here. In the US, if there is a crowd all trying to do the same thing, generally a line will form so that one person can go and then the next and so on. It's just part of our culture. If you go to McDonald's you wait in line to be able to order at the counter. Or, you stand at the counter of a store and wait until the salesperson acknowledges you. Such is not the case in China. Everywhere we've been, people just walk up, crowd around a counter and start talking or ordering or whatever. It looks to us like total chaos, but no one is bothered by it here. At McDonald's, or at the doctor's office, people don't even wait to get a receptionist's attention, they just walk up and start talking, or hand over their money or whatever. It is very strange, especially because in one-on-one situations, people are generally very friendly. But this crowd mentality is still surprising to us. When we checked in to one of our hotels, we stood a couple of feet back from the desk waiting our turn, and two or three other people walked right past us and up to the counter to start checking in. We were laughing about this cultural phenomenon at the doctor's office today, because attached to the fire extinguisher box were two gas masks. Anne was looking around and saying, "50 or so people in this waiting area. If there's a fire, which two of us get the gas masks?"

All this to say, this mentality was taken to the next level at this boat buffet. As soon as the OK to eat was given, people approached the oval shaped buffet area from all sides and started serving up food. People were piling plates up with noodles. Anne and Kris just looked at each other and laughed. We were regretting getting on this boat to begin with, because Seth was so tired, and now it looked like we wouldn't even get to eat. I (Kris) took the kids up to get some food, and it was like a prison cafeteria. You would have thought that these people hadn't eaten in a week. Folks were grabbing 3 and 4 of everything before we could even fight our way over to get to the plates. 

As it turns out, not eating might have been better. It was possibly the worst meal we've had here (not counting the meal that made me violently ill). Even Ruthie just sort of picked at her noodles. But, it was for times like this that we brought meal replacement bars, so we knew we could eat that when we got back to the hotel.

We walked out on the deck in order to enjoy the skyline. The evenings here get bearably cool, and even though the river stinks, we had a nice time enjoying the breeze and watching the city sail by. Anne and Kris took turns passing Seth off, just trying to keep him calm. He is such an active kid, especially when he is tired, that we were both worn out from wrestling with him through the whole ride.

As the ride grew peaceful, we had some quiet moments to reflect. This was our last night in Guangzhou, and it certainly has been quite a trip. We were talking about some of that, and Hannah said she knows that Walla Walla is really her home now because she misses it.

Just as we were enjoying this peaceful moment, a loud alarm sounded, and Latin music began blaring. I'm talking Ricky Martin, La Vida Loca blasted at nightclub volume level (because I know that is a valid reference point for all of you). We didn't know what was going on at first, but then out comes this clown to entertain us all. I mean, maybe this was all explained in Chinese beforehand, but when you can't understand the instructions, everything is a surprise. And none of us saw this clown coming. She came out and started juggling. I must say, she was a pretty good juggler. Calla downplayed her performance later saying "She was just a typical boat clown." She juggled balls, and then knives (in close quarters with a crowd of kids, thus continuing China's awesome sense of safety) and then she started doing tricks with a soccer ball. Again, she was impressive. She was spinning the ball around. After her little routine, she started grabbing people from the audience, holding their fingers up and spinning the soccer ball on their fingers. She did it to Ruthie and Elliott, who both enjoyed it. One fun thing is that as soon as the Latin dance music started blaring, Seth started clapping and bouncing. And Ruthie, who as you know from her videos loves to dance, started jumping all around. Apparently, no one else on the boat was living La Vida Loca, because only she and Hannah were dancing, even though the music absolutely could not be ignored.

Finally, they dialed down the volume, and we got ready to dock. Seth got cranky again after his brief dance break, so we couldn't get off the crazy boat soon enough. What a weird experience. On the bus ride back to the hotel, Ruthie was non stop chatter. It makes us laugh so much that she is just "talk talk talk" and we'll say something like "oh" or "yeah" because we have no idea what she's talking about, and then she jabbers on and on. I think she was just excited from being on the boat and playing and dancing. 

We got the youngest two to sleep right away at the hotel, and Calla and Elliott went for a brief night swim before the pool closed. Then, we all crashed in bed with exhaustion.

Tomorrow, we pack, head to Hong Kong, and then head home in just one more day. Start praying now for our adjustment back to our own time zone, for Seth on the flights home, and for tomorrow to go well.

Day 19

Sitting down at the computer and looking out the window of our 23rd floor hotel room makes me wish I had been the guy selling neon and LED lights in this city. Our photos don't do it justice, but there is so much to look at here at night. Our kids keep saying, "is that lighting?" But no, it is just flashing from the giant screen down the street. We also have a cool view of the Canton Tower, which is the tallest tower in China:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Tower

We started off the day bright and early. Seth had another restless night, but he also had a medical appointment at 8am. Only one parent had to go, so Kris and Seth got up for an early breakfast. His passport arrived (finally) so his appointment was able to happen without problems. We appreciate those of you who prayed about that.

He did really well at the doctor's office. He was pretty bored by the cab ride over there, though. Since he is under 2 he didn't need to be tested for TB (Ruthie came back negative, which is good), so his check-up was a bit more cursory. Taking the kids to the doctor here, though required, really just makes us want to get home even faster, so we can have them fully examined by our own doctors, Nothing against the Chinese doctors, but we can't do anything for the kids until we get home, and taking them is just a reminder about that. After the examination was finished, they told us that because of the measles outbreak at his orphanage he would have to come back tomorrow to be examined for measles. Not sure why they couldn't do that while he was laying on the table with his clothes off, but for some reason, it has to be tomorrow. But, he's showing no symptoms of measles, so that is good.

While the two boys were gone, Ruthie enjoyed having Anne "all to herself" again. That being said, she is warming up to Seth a bit. She will help hold his bottle, and she loves to throw away his used diapers. She has learned what "trash" means, and if we say it, she'll take the diaper and throw it away. Often, she'll pick the diaper up and ask us in Chinese if she can throw it away. So, she will be a good helper when we get home. She still won't kiss Seth, even though she loves kissing the rest of us, but we'll take what we can get.

By the time Kris and Seth got back, it was time to go to Shamian Island. It is a quaint little island along the Pearl river with ties to British and French colonial periods. There's another major hotel that caters to adoptive families on the island, called The White Swan. As a result, many of the little stores on the island are designed for foreign adopters to go and buy "Chinese stuff." We enjoyed looking at the architecture and we enjoyed the serenity of the island, but the cheesy commercialism of the place was a bit of a turn-off.

Fortunately, our good friend told us of a shop to go to where we would be treated well. Sure enough, when we walked in and told Michael that we were from Walla Walla, he said, "Oh, you are friends with Patty. So nice to see you!" We had a nice time chatting with him, and we were able to buy a few small things. He has two young boys who were at the shop with him, and we're told he scrimped and saved in order to pay the fine to have a second child. We got Ruthie (and Calla) little silk dresses, and we got Seth a small Chinese outfit. I'm pretty sure it is a law that if you adopt from China you have to buy your kids little Chinese dresses.

One fun thing we saw on the island was people playing what looked like hackey sack, but with an object that looked more like a badminton birdie. It had a weighted end and had feathers on the other. People of all ages were gathered in circles of 4-5 and kicking this thing around. In America, you don't see adults hackey sacking much, but there were adults of all ages enjoying this game (and some were smoking and kicking it).

We were at the island during lunch time, and we were recommended to a restaurant called "Lucy's." It billed itself as an American restaurant, but had everything from Italian and Mexican to grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken satay. We ordered a bit of everything. Seth had some congee, which is very popular here, and Ruthie enjoyed the satay we got at the Thai restaurant last night so we got her some of that. The kids had grilled cheese sandwiches and a cheese pizza. We were set to meet our bus pretty soon after ordering, so we ate very quickly. We're trying to balance eating locally with giving the kids something that feels comfortable, and this place helped to do that, even though the food wasn't that great. The decorations were entertaining, though. It looked like someone had robbed everything off the wall at an Applebee's and mailed it to China. There were old movie posters and random photos of Hollywood celebrities. My favorite poster was by the front door. It said "Breakfast of Champions" and it had a picture of a mug of beer and a bottle of what looked like aspirin. Whatever. Which reminds me: I forgot to mention our favorite shirt of the trip (so far). A guy at the zoo was wearing a t-shirt that said "why me always suck so much." It is hard to know how to answer that.

We got back to the hotel and it was time for naps. Seth took a short nap right when we got to the island, so we laid Ruthie down first. That meant that Seth had to nap in the other hotel room, so he wouldn't wake her up. They took long naps, which gave everyone a break, and gave Kris a long chunk of productive time to work (being away from work for 3 weeks is not easy).

By the time they woke up, it was just about time to eat again. For dinner, I'll pose to you a question: what is better than the best Mexican restaurant in Guangzhou? If you answerd homemade Mexican food, delivered by our friends, then you're correct! They came over and brought us chicken fajitas with homemade salsa. We tried to sit and eat poolside, but they told us you could only eat the hotel's food there. Seems like a strange rule, but we just piled around our hotel room's coffee table and chowed down. Good news: Ruthie liked the salsa. Or at least, she liked the chips with a hint of salsa, which is a gateway. So, she should fit right in to our family when we get home.

We had a nice relaxing dinner with good company. They taught us how to say "pray" in Chinese, which will come in handy for Ruthie. They also taught us how to say "be careful" which will also come in handy.

Finally, we got everyone ready for bed. Seth went to sleep more easily than last night, so we are praying for a more restful night for him. The other kids watched the documentary "North America" on the Discovery channel, since that and HBO are about the only consistently English channels here. Ruthie spent a bit of time loving and rocking her stuffed panda bear, which is good. We have tried to really encourage her to understand that sort of empathy, and tonight she did it on her own for the first time.

Tomorrow morning, we go to take our oath at the consulate, which I believe is our last official act before we can fly home. 

Day 18

Sitting down to reflect on the things we did today, it is hard to remember what we did today vs. yesterday...good thing we have taken lots of photos.

This morning, we went to the Guangzhou zoo. We honestly debated if it was worth it or not. Already on this trip we've done the Bay Aquarium in San Francisco, and the Zhengzhou zoo (for what it was worth). We knew it would be hot and that Seth would be cranky. But, we figured he'd be cranky here in the hotel room or at the zoo, so we might as well get out.

As it turns out, it wasn't a bad zoo. The animal care standards are still different here, but maybe we've been here long enough that we're getting used to it. Still, it is sad to see two lions sharing a cage that is 1/4 the size of our backyard. No wonder they were pacing around so much. The kids got to feed some giraffe, which was fun. One thing that is different about the zoos here is that you can get pretty close to the animals. We got some good photos of tigers and elephants and the like. They just had twin pandas delivered here, and we got to see those, too.

As with all our excursions, the local people spend almost as much time looking at the Americans as they do the animals. Of course, the fact that there are 6 families traveling in a pack doesn't help. We do put on quite a show.

We've enjoyed meeting some other adoptive families and getting to know them. It is encouraging to see other kids arounds Seth's age who are close to his size. Of course, every kid is different, and it has been fun to see the different parents learning new things about their kids. It's kind of a rough way to be introduced to people, because no one is at their peak. You can tell that all of us are strung out from travel and from new babies, etc. But, it helps having folks who "get it."

In the afternoon, everyone went swimming. Seth seemed to like the pool, and Ruthie was a lot more comfortable. She let the girls carry her around (but not Kris) and she stuck her head in the water. Elliott has made two new friends here, another 9 year old boy and a 7 year old boy. They hung out all afternoon, and then the three of our families all went to dinner.

There is a Thai place just around the corner that we had heard about, so we went out there. They have live music and a fun atmosphere. Kris and Anne both enjoy Thai food, so we were looking forward to trying it. When the hostess saw our three families with all our kids, we could tell that she did not want to seat us. She offered us the VIP room, for an extra 1500 yuan (about $250). She said otherwise we would have to "wait long time." One of the guys with us walked back in to the restaurant and saw tons of empty tables, so we passed on the VIP room and ended up sitting on the balcony. As hot as it is here, it was not unpleasant to sit outside (we're starting to get used to the smokers). 

This place had a huge menu, and all of the items that we could recognize looked good in the pictures. Between the three families we ordered a little bit of everything (not including the large selection of seafood that was swimming in tanks at the front entrance) and everyone seemed generally pleased.

As we were leaving the restaurant, the band was out in front playing more music. We couldn't resist shooting a little video. Aunt Jennifer, this one is for you: 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Video.MOV

Day 17

Well, the boys sleeping in one room and the girls in the other room worked out pretty well. Unless you were in the boys' room. Seth woke up about 4 am, and decided that was all the sleep he needed. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get him back to sleep, he and Kris just played together until everyone else woke up. It was some good one on one time for him. After a couple of hours, they were sitting on the couch and he just slumped over, asleep. He stayed up as much as he could, but finally gave in. He slept for another hour before heading to breakfast.

In the morning, we went with a group of other adoptive families to a pearl and jade market. They harvest pearls from the river here in GZ, so the prices are quite good. We had already been to one jade market, so we didn't do much here. The market was huge, with wholesale jade, silver, and all manner of other items. There were three or four floors with hundreds of shops each (most of these independent shops only take up a little bit of space) Kris was carrying Seth in a strap on baby carrier, and he started to get tired so they were walking around together. Lots of odd looks from folks when they saw an American dad carrying around a Chinese baby. Plus, the Chinese don't generally let their babies cry much in public, so anytime our kids are crying people take notice.

After leaving the market, we went to a Cantonese folk art museum. The facility was build in the late 1800s, and all hand carved. It was all so intricate, and impressive to think that it took 6 years to build the place. We enjoyed looking around, and Elliott got a souvenir that he had been wanting. I won't tell you what it is, because some of you reading this might also be receiving the same thing. :)

In the afternoon, we had plans to meet up with our friends and swim here at the hotel. However, while we were at the museum, it began to pour down rain. It is typhoon season, so it rains here almost every day, we're told. We had seen some sprinkling before, but this was a heavy downpour. Ruthie had a blast playing on the edge of the covered porch while she waited on Elliott. She kept sticking her hand out to feel the rain and smiling. When we walked back to the bus, we were all soaked to the bone, but she had the biggest grin on her face. 

All through the morning, Seth was acting tired, from the pearl market on, and getting crankier. Finally, Anne saw two little teeth popping up in his mouth, so that explains his grouchiness. He fought sleep as hard as any baby I've ever met, and it wasn't until we got back to the hotel that he finally took a nap. This does not bode well for our plane rides home...

In the afternoon, our friends came over, which was a lot of fun. Funny story: when they first moved to GZ about 2 years ago from the US, they learned quickly how to tell a cab driver to go our hotel. The reason was because there is a Starbucks right across the street, and all the drivers know how to get to the hotel, but they wanted the Starbucks.

Because of the ongoing rain, we nixed the swimming and just hung out in our room and visited. It is always a treat to be with friends, and we were glad to hear that they have adjusted to Chinese life so well. We are so blessed in our life to have so many relationships with great people. And, since almost all the other contacts we have in China were gone for the summer, we were glad that we got to visit someone we knew who was actually here at the same time as us. And, these people are cool because they have a kid named Elliot, too (though spelled with only one T). Their Elliot is only 8 months old, and it was nice to see her and Seth side by side. We have said that he presents himself about the same way a 9 month old does, and that was confirmed in some ways. It is really sad to think that he was in an environment that contributed to such a delay for him, but we are already seeing progress from him. Tonight, Kris was playing with him and tapping his head with an empty plastic water bottle. Then, Seth would pick up the bottle and tap his head, too. He really likes to mimic us, the things we do and he tries to copy some of the things we say. He really notices when Anne and Kris are not around. He loves the kids, but wants his parents to stay close by. On the bus today, he played peek-a-boo with the person sitting in front of him by leaning his body around the seat. (There are no car seats, so he was just sitting in Anne's lap). He was doing all the peek-a-boo work, and it is fun to see him playful. He's still got work to do, but we are grateful to see some progress in such a short time. Even if that comes with a little crankiness...

Random facts of the day: 

-Apparently, LeBron James is in Guangzhou this week, too. I wouldn't be surprised if he is staying at our hotel. 

-There's a Mexican restaurant in town, that is not bad according to our friends. Stay tuned for details on that. 

-Also, if you are wondering, while the guys bond in the one room, the ladies watch synchronized swimming in the other. I (Kris) came in to the room for a bit and Calla and Anne were glued to the TV. I must admit, that team from Spain was pretty impressive.

Day 16

It was nice to wake up in Guangzhou this morning. The kids said that the breakfast buffet here was a big upgrade from our previous stops. Again, that's a major first world problem, but this blog is unfiltered...you get whatever we think.. :) For those of you keeping score at home:

-our shower and our shampoo in Shanghai was the best (although this hotel is a close second)

-the bottled water here is the best (since the water in China is generally unsafe to drink, the hotels give you bottled water in your rooms each day. The brand here is our favorite.)

-the breakfast buffet that serves poison bacon is our least favorite.

After breakfast, Ruthie had to go to her medical appointment. Before she can leave China, she has to be examined (Seth will have to wait until his passport arrives). They told us that only one parent had to go, and that it was better if all the other kids didn't go, so Anne and Hannah took Ruthie and the rest of the crew stayed at the hotel. 

Ruthie obviously has been to the doctor before, and didn't like it. As soon as she saw the nurses in white masks, she started freaking out. This does not bode well for her future, as she's got a lot more doctor visits coming. But, Anne was able to console her, which is a big win. At her appointment, they drew a little blood and they tested her for TB. We'll get the results back in a couple of days, but needless to say, we're pretty confident she doesn't have TB.

We did have one mystery solved today, which is huge. She keeps repeating this phrase to us which sounds like "eta bien." We know that "da bien" means "poop," but we knew she wasn't talking about poop this much, so we had no idea what she was saying. We have the Google Translate app, which lets you speak into it and provides a translation, but we couldn't get her to speak into it, and when we tried to speak into it it translated it as nonsense. She won't generally repeat stuff for our guides when they ask her to, and they haven't been able to understand our phonetic pronunciation of it in order to help us out.

Finally today, she said it in front of our guide, who translated it for us: "Where are we going?" Poor thing has been living in a fog for days now, without us being able to answer her simple question. But, already things are looking better. Tonight, as we headed out of the hotel to walk to dinner, she was kind of whining, and Kris was able to repeat the phrase and then tell her "food." She stopped whining and started laughing. Not sure if she understood, or if she was just laughing at his Chinese pronunciation.

While Ruthie and Anne and Hannah were at the doctor, the rest stayed back at the hotel. We had fun playing with Seth. He's really opened up a lot in the last few days. Today, while we were on the bed, he rolled over for us on his own. And then he rolled again and again. That's the first time he's done that for us, so we were very excited. He did it again later for Anne (see the video below). Needless to say, we're glad to see some progress with him. He's definitely found his voice and formed some strong opinions with us. He's not afraid to cry when he is hot, tired, wet, hungry, or just bored. We have to keep reminding ourselves "this is really good" because life with a baby is as hard as we remembered. :) We're so grateful to have all our kids, and we're especially grateful to have these two new ones, knowing that our lives and their lives could have gone a lot differently. When we stop and think about it, it is really overwhelming what God is doing in the life of our family. 

Seth started to get tired from all his rolling, so we went for a walk. There's plenty to explore around our hotel, so we took our time. Conveniently, Seth took a nap in the stroller while we journeyed. Our hotel has a lovely garden attached to it, with a large koi pond with a pavilion. That was fun to see, and we knew that the rest of the crew would want to see it later, too.

When they got back from the doctor's visit, we walked across the street to a market to buy some baby supplies and some lunch. We found some Gatorade, which was a surprise, so we got some for Kris since he's still not 100% after the food poisoning incident. Incidentally, the Gatorade featured Jeremy Lin on the bottle. That dude is advertising everything here. Every other ad is either he or Jackie Chan. Or an ad for plastic surgery. We've seen an alarming number of those.

We noticed as we were out that the congestion and the traffic is much less here. Maybe it is because we are just on a side street or something, but there are much less people walking around, and we haven't had to dodge any bikes and scooters on the sidewalk here (yet). 

The two kids napped at separate times from each other today for the first time. We don't have adjoining rooms, so we have to walk down the hall to get from one room to the other (in all the hotels we looked at, the occupancy limit was three per room. Not sure if that is a specific to China thing or not). During nap time, Anne stayed with the two new kids, and the rest of the crew went to the other room. But, thanks to the magic of wifi, we can text each other for free (our hotel in Zhengzhou had no wifi, except in the lobby, which was frustrating). While they napped, Kris went to a meeting about our consulate appointment and the older kids had a dance party. (Because, why not?) They found a TV channel that plays American music and had fun with it.

At the meeting, there were six adoptive families all together. We worked with our guide to get our paperwork all sorted out (except for Seth's passport) in preparation for our consulate appointment. Another topic of interest at the meeting was how we were going to get from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, where we fly out of. There is a train between the two cities that is only two hours, or you can take a van (about three hours). Our guide was laying out the two options, and we were having flashbacks from the crazy train station experience when we rode from Shanghai to Nanjing. In this case, we would be on our own when we got to HK, and would still need a taxi to get from the station to the hotel (we would actually need two, since we won't all fit in one). So, even though the van is more expensive, it seems like the best option for us. As we were mulling this over with one guide, the other guide came into the meeting. She said, "I saw your family at the airport last night. You need the van, the train is too much for you." And, that settled it. She was actually able to negotiate a better price on it for us, so that is good. Part of the complication is that you need a driver who is licensed both in Guangzhou and in Hong Kong. Plus, there is customs to deal with. In the van, you don't have to worry about customs when you get to HK, because the driver takes care of everything (so they said in the meeting). Plus, he'll take us from hotel door to hotel door, with no need for a taxi in between. So, we're praying that all goes smoothly.

By the time the meeting was done, everyone was awake and getting hungry. We walked across the street to eat. The kids chose McDonald's, because they said the chicken nuggets in China are better than in the US. I'm not sure if I want to know why that is. Ruthie has discovered a love for french fries (how do you say "Eat your chicken before you eat any more fries" in Chinese?). Kris and Anne have discovered a loathing for eating out every meal for 16 days straight, no matter if it is American or Chinese food. But, we're hoping it will make us even more grateful to be home.

After dinner, we walked back out to the hotel garden to show the ladies. It was really peaceful at night. We saw a couple of very small bats flying around above the koi pond. We learned at the museum in Zhengzhou that bats are a symbol of blessing in China (the word for bat and the word for blessing are very similar. In order for that to be true in English, you have to say the word blessing really, really quickly.)

It was a nice thing to see, and a nice ending to our day, knowing how blessed we are to be here, and to be on this journey that is really just beginning.

For our sleeping arrangements, we've got the girls in one room and the boys in the other. Seth is pretty active in his sleep and cries out a lot, so whoever he is sleeping with him is going to be up and down a few times. Last night it was Anne, tonight it is Kris. Kris and Elliott had some fun male bonding time being just the two of them (since Seth was sleeping). I'm sure the girls are having fun, too, doing whatever it is that girls do for fun. Goodnight, all.

Here's the video of Seth rolling over. Hope it works for you:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Seth%20Rolling.MOV

Day 15

Today is Friday, and it is our last day in Zhengzhou. In the morning, we all are moving pretty slow. Kris is still feeling sick, and so he skipped breakfast. But, Anne wins wife of the year award, because she was able to score some Pedialyte from another adoptive family at breakfast, and that has been helping.

We had sent our laundry out yesterday (hopefully for the last time), and got it back this morning. After the lady left, we found out some of it was still damp! Not cool. So now we have to pack a bunch of damp clothes in our suitcases for our flights to Guangzhou. Hopefully, we won't smell like mildew all week.

Our guide came by to deliver Seth's last remaining paperwork, but his passport was not ready. We need that to fly, though she said she thought his adoption certificate would be sufficient.

We are going to go back right before we go to the airport, and we are hoping that it will be ready then.

(OK...I wrote that first part before we got to the airport. We didn't get his passport, but as it turned out, everything was fine with regards to our getting on the plane today. Hopefully, our passport will be mailed to our new hotel in the next day or so).

In other airport news, our flight was delayed over an hour. When we got there, we didn't even have a gate assignment. But here's a weird thing. We walked to the nearest gate where we could find some seats (not easy to do in China), and it just happened to be the right gate. What are the chances?

After waiting forever for our flight to take off, we finally got to Guangzhou about 9 pm, met our guide and took our van to the hotel. Seth fought sleep the whole 2 hour plane ride, but he just couldn't resist sleeping on the van. Fortunately, he stayed asleep through checking in and getting to our room.

By the time we got to GZ, we were all exhausted from the flight, and from the last couple of nights. I don't know how we're going to do with the baby on the flight home. But, checking in to our hotel made a big difference. We were upgraded to the executive suites, and it seems to be quite the upgrade. It looks like it will be a nice way to end our trip.

Day 14

Our new kids kept us up a lot during the night. Basically, from 2:30 on we were awake. Not a great way to start the day.

After breakfast, we went to a museum of Chinese Imperial History. It was a pretty nice museum, and our guide was very informative. Anne was commenting that many of the artifacts had been discovered in burial sites. That's sad, really, because so many of the ancient treasures of China have been destroyed. Each incoming emperor would frequently destroy the people and things associated with the previous dynasty, and so much of what is left is things that were buried underground. Still, it was nice to get a brush up on history, as I'm fairly sure I missed the day we studied Chinese history in school.

In the afternoon, we had another slow day. We're enjoying playing with the kids. Seth has a really great smile and a really fun laugh. Midway through the afternoon, Kris started feeling bad. I'll spare you all the details, but we think he got food poisoning (from bacon, of all things). So, he spent much of the afternoon miserable, and much of the night awake and miserable. (Hence the lack of blogging last night).

The kids watched a movie on the computer last night, and it was fun to see Ruthie. She would see something funny, and then get everyone's attention so she could act out the moment that had just happened. She must have done that a dozen times, and she was very amused with herself.

Two bad nights of sleep in a row has made us more than a little strung out. But, Friday we fly to Guangzhou, for the last leg of our trip. We have friends who live there, so we're anxious to see them and to get all the paperwork finalized. Mostly, we're anxious to feel better and get some sleep. 

Day 14

We slept hard last night, which is good. We had a later breakfast than we have been, though this really just means it is going to be hard for us to adjust to our timezone when we get back home...

We went to the zoo this morning. We tried to go early, because it was hot. But, I guess if you really want to beat the heat you'd have to go in the middle of the night, because even at 9 am it was still sweltering. The zoo was a nice excursion, but it was pretty sad. It was quite run down and dirty. The standards of animal care are a bit different than in the zoos we've been to in the US. In one of the exhibits, we saw some mice chewing through the fence. I don't believe they were part of the admission price. Still, the mice, the random ducks and the monkeys seemed to be cohabiting nicely. That reminds me that at Ruthie's provincial office last week, we saw a mouse or rat crawling around under a table. I suppose if I were a mouse I'd live in a place where there were a lot of kid snacks being dropped on the floor, too. The standards of cleanliness are just different here. One of the strange things at the zoo was that they had water creatures like penguins and sea lions and such, but the water in their "displays" (I'm using that term loosely) was super dirty. All the water at the zoo was greenish and murky. You could generally make out the fact that there was some kind of animal swimming in the water, but you certainly couldn't see much. Very strange.

Still in all, the zoo wasn't terrible. You could get pretty close to the animals, which is good and bad. There was just a normal piece of glass between us and a very large gorilla, who I'm sure could have broken that glass without a second thought. But, we did get to see some pandas, which doesn't happen often at US zoos. Ruthie had some fun seeing the animals, so that was a treat for us. Seth mostly napped. While at the zoo, we continued to draw a crowd. A little boy asked to take a picture with Calla. We had been warned beforehand that many Chinese are fascinated by blond hair, and certainly this boy was. Later, a man asked our guide if he could exchange some money with us so he could keep an American dollar bill as a souvenir. He seemed very excited to get it, just as our kids have been super excited to see the Chinese currency.

After melting at the zoo, we went back to the hotel. We had bought some ramen style noodles at Wal Mart, and warmed those up for the kids. Ruthie ate a ton of noodles (again). She's really warming up to Kris and let him feed her and even bathe her today. This is good. Anne says she's figured out that he is the fun one, so she's enjoying playing with him.

We took the afternoon easy, just playing and letting the new kids nap. Kris took the other kids down to the pool, which they always enjoy. They got to experience a sauna for the first time, if only for a few minutes. They were underwhelmed.

For dinner, we were told that the Holiday Inn which is right next to our hotel had a more reasonably priced restaurant than our hotel does, so we walked over there. As it turns out, they've recently revamped the restaurant over there, and is all spicy noodles (and pretty expensive). So, not really what we were after. Frankly, it will be a long time before we are really craving noodles again. So, we went back to our hotel and ate there. Our kids who are able to voice their opinions in English wanted pizza, and since they've been adventurous over the last few days we were happy to oblige. We ended the evening relaxing and watching a little TV. There was a travel documentary on, and off all the places they could be visiting, they were exploring China. Still, I think we're having more of an adventure than they are...

Day 13

Today was all about paperwork. In our last province, we picked up Ruthie on Monday, and then had about an hour's worth of paperwork on Tuesday in order to get her official adoption certificate and to get her passport. In Seth's province, things work a bit differently.

We went in the morning back to the provincial adoption office and did some paperwork to get his adoption certificate. We got the certificate, so we are officially his parents. We've known we were his parents for a long time, but now China knows it, too. We were reflecting today on that first moment so many months ago when we saw Seth's picture and a short video clip. We knew then that he was the one for us and we were the ones for him. And now, he's ours.

After getting the certificate, we had to take the passport application over to the notary's office, which was about a 15 minute drive away. We waited there, turned that paperwork in, and then we had to go to the passport office to get Seth's picture taken. Part of my (Kris') arm is in his passport photo, so that means I am part Chinese citizen now. 

While we were waiting for all this, we struck up a conversation with another adoptive family who was also in line with us. I'm not sure how it came up, but they were mentioning that in China, a woman can't get health insurance unless she has a job (even if your husband has insurance, you can't sign up through his job). Of course there are a lot of government jobs here, but this woman was also telling us that if you work for the government and have more than one child, even if you can afford the costly fee, you still will be fired, since it presents a conflict of interests with the government's policy. The whole discussion made me glad that the mothers of our kids made the choices they did, so that we can even meet these kids, much less adopt them. China is such a difficult place when it comes to rights for women. There are no easy choices here.

Finally, we were done with all that waiting around (temporarily), and we went back to the room for lunch and naps. We got Seth and Ruthie some shrimp and noodles from the hotel, and they both ate like champs. We found out Ruthie loves shrimp, and she was trying to teach us the Chinese word for shrimp. Everytime she would point to one to tell us she wanted to eat it, we'd say "shrimp." Then, she would say whatever the word for shrimp is in Chinese. Very fun. She is learning some English quickly. She spent much of our car time saying the ABCs and counting to 10 in English. Over and over again. This is not a good sign for our long flight home.

After nap time, we went to another government office where we had to turn in all the passport application (are you confused yet?) and we had to be "interviewed." We waited forever at that office, and it was very busy. When it finally came time for the interview, the officer looked over our form and didn't say a word. Her superior officer saw that we were Americans, though, and he came by and chatted with is in English. He asked where we were from. When we said, "Washington," he said something about the University of Washington. We didn't bother to tell him that we were in Eastern Washington, in Cougar country (we didn't want to "coug" the interview). He was very friendly, and told us he had family in the US.

By the time we were done with that, it was close to dinner time. Our guide had taken us to the noodle restaurant last night, and she mentioned another restaurant across the street that sounded good, so tonight we asked her to take us there. It was called "100 Year Old Mother." In other word's "Grandma's Cafe." They served "hot pot" which is apparently very popular here. They put two kinds of soup bases on a burner that sits at the middle of your table, and then you add whatever meat and vegetables that you want. So, we had some beef and fish balls with spinach in a mushroom broth base and in some sort of spicy base. Our biological kids did well with trying some new things. We found out that Seth likes to eat tofu. For dessert, they brought us sliced watermelon, which has to be Ruthie's all time favorite food so far, as she eats her weight in watermelon every morning at breakfast. During dinner, we asked our guide to tell us some of the interesting families she has met. She told two stories, which are worth repeating: Once, a few years ago, she served as the guide for a couple who was adopting. Both the husband and wife were blind, and they adopted a 6 year old boy who was blind. She said it was very difficult for all of them at first, and she ended up staying as their guide for two weeks, because they had developed a bit of a rapport. They even went sightseeing, to see some stone carvings that they could look at with their hands. After we risked our lives crossing the street just to go to dinner, I can't imagine how this family managed.

The other story was even more fascinating. There was a family who adopted a little boy from an orphanage. They didn't know it, but the boy was a twin, and his twin brother was in a foster home. When the foster mom heard that the other boy was being adopted, she went to the hotel with her boy, hoping to meet the parents. Well, sure enough the new adoptive mom is walking through the lobby and she sees a woman who is holding a baby that looks exactly like her new baby! They ended up staying another week and adopting both twins together.

Also at dinner, our guide asked if Calla and Elliott were twins. We told her they weren't, but were in fact two years apart. The info she had showed them both with the same birth year. Since their birthdays are in the same month, she was really curious how you could have two kids born six days apart. 

When we got back home, Anne and Ruthie went to bed quickly, but Seth got a second wind. The other kids and Kris entertained him until he was too tired to fight it. Here's a short video that is actually from yesterday, but it shows a little bit of both our new kids and their different personalities:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/IMG_2390.MOV

Day 12

Today is the day we got Seth! 

We started the morning in our new hotel, in Zhengzhou. We were all anxious to have some different choices on the breakfast buffet. As it turns out, it was pretty underwhelming. But, being dissatisfied with a breakfast buffet is a pretty good problem to have...:) At breakfast, there were a ton of other American families, all adopting or assisting with adoptions. Anne and Kris agreed that it was a refreshing change to hear people speaking English all around us. Can you tell that we are ready to come home? :)

We had to meet our guide at 9:30, and since we ate breakfast at 6:30, that left us with some time to kill in the morning. The kids filled that with hide and seek. Our hotel rooms have a surprising number of places to hide. We thought it was fun that Ruthie seemed to know how to play. She's fitting right in with our kids. I forgot to mention yesterday that she spent most of the flight saying her ABCs with Anne. Today, she could remember all the way through "G" on her own. Smart kid.

We met our guide in the lobby, and she gave us a copy of today's newspapers in Chinese and English to keep as a souvenir for Seth. We have copies of newspapers from the day of our birth (thanks, Mom!) and from our other bio kids, so that was a nice gesture.

I've attached a video of us picking up Seth, but I'll tell you about it here. Just as with Ruthie, we had to wait quite a while. Still, it was fun to see other parents meeting their kids for the first time.

When we finally got Seth, he didn't cry at all. He seemed a little curious, and was looking at our faces pretty hard, but didn't show a lot of emotion. That made us pretty sad, since it is a sign that he's been neglected. He wasn't sad to leave anyone, and he didn't seem scared to be with us. We've got our work cut out for us with him. He is really tan and was not very clean. We are guessing that his foster family is rural, and maybe they just strap him on their back and work in the sun all day. It is hard to know many details, since the Chinese are reluctant to give you a straight story. It si a very important and deeply ingrained part of the culture here, that they would never admit to anything less than excellent care. But, we knew that there would be some questions going in, and we are glad to have him now. One thing we think God is teaching us on this trip is to take each day as it comes. "Moment by moment" is what we keep telling ourselves. God is taking good care of us today, and we're grateful for that. 

Ruthie wasn't sure what to think. She was a little taken aback, as if to say, "Hey, I'm your kid, not that baby." But, we gave her lots of attention, too, and I think she'll settle in OK. 

After getting Seth, we went to Wal Mart to pick up some basic supplies. Walking around the store, Seth had a lot of fun with Elliott. Elliott could make him laugh a bit, and that was fun to see. Ruthie went around, as she's been doing, giving all of us kisses. Kris was holding Seth, and she kissed Kris, but wouldn't kiss Seth yet. She just waved to him instead.

After getting back to the hotel, we gave him a bath. Ruthie had to get a bath too, then. We just about burned through our whole supply of ear swabs cleaning the dirt out of his ears, but he is a nice, clean, sweet smelling boy now. 

He's got some bumps and rashy looking spots, but we think it might just be bug bites. They told us he hadn't been back to the orphanage since the measles outbreak, and they said only 3 kids had measles, so that is two bits of good news. Still, we'd appreciate your prayers for all of our health. 

Here's a video of Seth when we got him back to the hotel:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Seth.zip

After both the new kids took a very long nap, we met our guide in the lobby. She had agreed to show us the neighborhood near our hotel and to take us to dinner. There is a Walmart within walking distance, a park, a small grocery store, and a bakery. We ate dinner at a small noodle restaurant. Noodles are the primary cuisine of this area, and this place was actually pretty good. Our favorite part of the meal was Ruthie. She ate 4 or 5 bowls of noodles and beef in broth (with chopsticks). She kept asking for more, and then after she'd eaten all the noodles she tipped up her bowl and drank it dry!

Seth ate pretty well, but it seems clear to us that he hasn't had any real solid food before. He can do a bottle without a problem, but he has trouble eating anything else. So, that's a bit different than our expectations. 

As we were getting ready for bed, Anne was using the flashlight to look at a spot on Seth's head. Ruthie thought that was pretty interesting, and so she used the flashlight to look at all of our heads. She's not sure what to make of this baby quite yet, but she's warming up to him slowly. Very slowly. 

Tomorrow, we'll go and get Seth's registration certificate, which makes us legally his parents. Then, he can apply for a passport so we can fly him home. We hate to have to wait here until Friday, but...moment by moment.

Day 11

We started the day in Nanjing, and ended in Zhengzhou. What a long day.

Our morning was pretty slow, which is good and bad. We were ready to move on, ready to meet Seth, and ready to get out of our hotel room. At the same time, we're really enjoying being with Ruthie. 

We started the day with some reading and prayer together, which was nice. We were able to successfully pack all the souvenirs we bought, which is good. We packed light for our trip; a carry on bag for each of us, and then two smallish suitcases. Our bigger suitcase had a tire blowout, so we'll probably buy another one before we leave. 

In lieu of actual news, here's some random observations about China:

-a lot of people here smoke. I mean, a lot. Mostly older people, it seems, but they have no problems with smoking in public. Airports, train stations, hotel lobbies, we even got on an elevator with two people smoking. That's a big difference from what we are used to. The kids especially have hated being around it.

-we're surprised how much English is everywhere. In fact, here's a business tip for you. If you want to make a lot of money, print t-shirts with English words--any English words--and sell them in China. People will buy and wear a t-shirt that says anything in English, even if it doesn't make grammatical sense. We've been surprised by the fascination with English, but there's a lack of fascination with grammar. This is odd, because there are a lot of people who speak English here. After all this time, Anne and I theorize that the English they are using in stores, etc. must be more in line with Chinese grammar. So, maybe it makes sense to them, but it has provided some much needed laughs for us. 

-I think we've mentioned this before, but the traffic here is crazy. The lines on the road appear to be suggestions more than anything. What is especially surprising is the people on bikes and scooters. They zip in and out of cars, they ride on the sidewalk, and they don't obey any traffic laws. I can't imagine living here and owning a moped. I'd be dead within a week if I drove like they do.

In the afternoon, we flew to Zhengzhou, which was an experience. The airport was crowded, and right at the last minute, our gate changed. Everyone in line in front of us could understand the instructions, but we couldn't. So, we grabbed our stuff quickly and followed the crowd. As it turned out, we made it OK. We had to get on a bus to drive out to the tarmac and get on the plane. Let's just say our personal bubble is a lot bigger than the amount of space they allowed for us on the bus. But, we made it, and got on the plane. As we walked up the stairs onto the plane, I (Kris) was in the rear of our caravan. Some guy next to me kept pushing his way up to get in front of me, between me and the rest of the kids. It's pretty obvious that we were together, being the only Caucasians around, but still this guy kept jockeying for position on the stairs. I was like, "Really, dude? You want to get closer to the crazy train? Be my guest." Not sure where he thought he was going to go, but whatever. That's one thing we've noticed here. People will push you out of the way to get where they are going. There seems to be no unspoken etiquette about getting on and off elevators, subway cars, etc. When the doors open, people just go for it, not waiting to let people get off first. Seems counterproductive.

We weren't sure how Ruthie would do flying, but she loved it. She was totally hyped up, and kept pointing things out to Calla sitting next to her. She continues to amuse us. 

We got to ZZ without much incident, until we got to our hotel. We were tired, it was late, so you know something bad is going to happen. We were supposed to have one room with a King sized bed and one adjoining room with two doubles. Our adjoining room only had one double bed. Our guide thankfully was with us to help. They showed us to some other rooms, but they were going to try to put is in two rooms that were across the hall from each other. The rooms were bigger than the adjoining rooms, which was appealing, but we knew that trying to do naps in one room and work across the hall wouldn't work. So we went back to the adjoining rooms. Finally they brought an extra twin bed in, so we got everything settled. By this time, we were all tired. We ordered some food from the hotel restaurant, but Anne, Calla, and Ruthie fell asleep before it came.

One other weird feature of our room: Apparently a Japanese man lived here for a long time, and so they converted one of the bathrooms. We have one normal bath and one that has a sink and a washing machine in it. We thought this would be great to have, since we only packed clothes for a week, but the machine's instructions are all in japanese, so none of the staff knows how to use it. So, we're basically out a bathroom with 7 people. Good times.

As we drove into town from the airport, we passed by a giant ferris wheel. It's a good reminder that starting tomorrow, our lives are going to be even more like a circus than they are now...

Pictures

Here's a link to some pics from our time in Nanjing:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Nanjing%20Pics.zip

Enjoy!

Day 11

Our last full day in Nanjing. And, we're ready to move on, for a lot of reasons. Each day we've been here, we've had fun experiences and made memories. And, today was no exception.

We met our guide this morning and she took us to the local lake. Lots to see and do there. We didn't know what to expect, but  we had a great time. When you first walk through the city wall gate (part of the same ancient wall we toured the other day) you see a lotus garden. There were thousands of lotus plants lining the bank of the lake, with their huge green leaves and their bright pink flowers. We took lots of pictures of the lotus flowers, because they were so beautiful and unique.

As we kept walking our way around the lake, we saw people flying kites, and we saw some bumper boats. Elliott was desperate to do the bumper boats, so we paired up and rode. Each boat could only handle two riders, so Elliott and Kris rode in one and Hannah and Calla rode in one. We decided that Anne would wait behind with Ruthie. Just as Kris and Elliott were climbing in, Ruthie came running up and wanted to get in the boat with the boys. So, she sat in Kris' lap through the whole boat ride. We didn't expect her to do well once the bumper boat left the dock, but she did great. She had fun seeing Hannah and Calla in another boat (and bumping in to them). She seems to be getting over her fear of Kris a bit. When she's tired, she still only wants Anne, but in her good moments she is really a lot of fun. As we were walking through the park, Kris leaned down to take a picture of the two of them together. She absolutely loves seeing pictures of herself on our iPhones. Kris took the picture and said "selfie!" As he stood back up, she repeated "selfie!" Add that to her growing list of English words she's learning. 

After the boats, there were a lot of other fun things to see at the lake. It was hot, but we walked around and saw some more old ladies dancing (our guide said they were square dancing, and it was very common, just as we had seen outside our hotel last night), we saw some street musicians, and we saw some really unusual rock formations that occur naturally at the lake. We also saw an area where people come and write their wishes on a red ribbon and tie it to a tree. Families will do that on Chinese New Year and then come back the next year to reflect on the year. The trees were absolutely full of red ribbons. It did make us stop and think about what a significant year it has been for our family, and what God might have in store for us over the next year. 

Another interesting area they had at the lake park was a bunch of hand written papers hanging from trees. There were a lot of older people milling around and reading the papers. Our guide told us that the papers were basically personal ads. Older people will look through the ads, trying to match up their children to get married. We thought it was funny that only the older parents were out looking for matches, and none of the children themselves.

As we headed back to our hotel, we decided to get a bite to eat. We put ourselves in the hands of our trusted guide, and she took us to a fast food Chinese place. Not sure what it was called, but the sign said "Style." It was a buffet-style place, where you got a little meat of your choosing, and little veggies, and a little rice or dumplings. Anne and Kris both agreed that it is really hard to order food here. For one, it it difficult to recognize what kind of meat you are looking at, and for another, you can't really tell what it is going to taste like just by looking at it. So, we got a few things that looked appealing, or at least that looked more appealing than the other options. Kris grabbed some meat and our guide said, "Are you sure you want that?" Not sure what it was, but we think it must have been oxtail. That is our best guess. At any rate, it was better than the chicken that Anne got. Even Ruthie wouldn't eat that. Still, it is hard to complain when lunch for 6 costs only $6.00.

After lunch it was nap time, and swimming for the older kids. Ruthie took a long nap, so we all got some good down time. We hung around the room for a while, and noticed that it was raining. That dampened our plans to go back out and explore the city. So, we wandered around the mall for a bit and got some dinner to take to the room. 

We spent the evening having more fun just being together. Ruthie is a blast. Full of energy and spunk and silliness.

We'd appreciate your prayers for our travel tomorrow. We'll leave here in the afternoon. We'll spend the morning packing and getting ready. Conveniently, our pastor told us what verses he'll be preaching on, so we'll spend some time in the morning reading and worshipping as a family. That helps us feel connected to our faith family while we're away.

Day 10

Hard to believe we've been away from home for 10 days. At the same time, though, it feels like we've been away from home forever. 

Today was our first full day without a guide. As we were thinking about it last night, we weren't sure what we would do with ourselves all day. But this morning we walked down to the Confucian Temple area and did some more shopping. Anne has a killer sense of direction, and she decided to take us down a different street. It is fascinating how you can get just one block away from the high end, highly Western style mall and end up on a street where people have duct taped their belongings together and are crammed into tiny little spaces. China continues to surprise us. I am glad we brought our kids so they can see how other people in the world live. There seems to be a high value on not throwing things away, but instead reusing and repurposing them, even past the point where it would seem sensible. This seems especially true among the older people. Their bikes are worn and rusty, with broken wicker baskets taped on to the back. Their brooms and mops are so old as to seemingly be ineffective, but still they use them. There is a sharp divide in China between the "haves" and the "have-nots."

Once in the market, we found a different side street than we had been on before, and some different shops. I say "shop" loosely, as each stall is about 6' X 8' with stuff all over the walls and hanging from the ceilings. The Nanjing area is known for a few specific things, and they are all for sale in this market. Wooden fans like you typically associate with China are famous here in Nanjing, as well as a certain type of tea called Yuhua Cha. I'm told it is one of the finest teas in China. People here carry around bottles of this green tea in the same way Americans drink water. Everyone you see, young or old, is carrying this tea and drinking it. The leaves are pretty big, so in the bottom of everyone's bottles are big leaves that look like green beans. We haven't tasted it yet, but that's on our list.

After our shopping trip, we were hot (it is almost 100 degrees and very humid here), so we went swimming at the hotel. Ruthie eased into the swimming a bit more today, and let Anne hold her in the water and walk around with her. Yesterday, she kind of "endured" the pool, but today she was smiling a bit.

We picked up some fried rice for lunch (it is hard to say no to lunch that costs $2.00 for all of us), and ate in our room. Ruthie took a nap, and we spent much of the afternoon hanging out in the room. Kris got some work done, and the kids played. We put some music on after a while, and that really got Ruthie going. I wish I could describe to you how silly she is. She is just about the silliest person we've ever met. We've tried to capture on video her silliness, and this is the best we can do:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/IMG_1340.MOV

One other interesting thing she does: laundry. We've been washing a few things in the hotel tub, and Ruthie is helping. She will stir the clothes around in the water, beat them on the side of the tub, and then wring them out. She's obviously done this before.

Another fun thing she's doing is learning the kids names. She calls them by their names (or at least close to their names) and she calls Kris "ba ba," which is Chinese for daddy. But when she wants Anne's attention, she'll call her "Anne." Weird. We're trying to reinforce "mommy" as her name, since we discovered what she is saying.

She still is very chatty, which is fun. We've tried to figure out some of the things she says, but there's a few things that we don't quite get yet. Maybe our guide will help us tomorrow, if she says them then. (One funny thing that happened yesterday: when we were walking up the steps of the city gate, the other couple who was with us has their grandma on the trip with them. Grandma was taking her time climbing the stairs, and Ruthie turned around and said in Chinese, "Come on, grandma!")

We decided to eat dinner at the hotel's restaurant, since it would be easiest. They have a buffet even at dinner, so we took advantage of that. It is kind of nice, because you can be a bit adventurous in your eating, and if you don't like it, you can always get something else. It's a win for our whole family.

After dinner, we went out of the hotel to explore some of the night life we've seen outside our window. There were huge crowds in the street and in the intersection where our hotel is. We saw what looked to be a poodle owners convention, we saw people selling all manner of cheap junk, and we saw some older people writing calligraphied Chinese characters in water in the sidewalk. There were also a group of older ladies line dancing to some loud music. Now we know the source of the music we can hear each night.

So, that's the story on today. Ruthie continues to be more and more at ease with us, and we are falling more and more in love with her and with her silly expressions and her fun personality. We're praying that all goes well in a few days, as we add one more kiddo to the mix...

Day 9

We've heard from several folks how much you're enjoying our blog updates. I'm glad that we are able to keep everyone updated. We're having fun making memories, and glad you can all live vicariously through us. We really do value your support and find joy in the knowledge that so many people care about us.

Ruthie is totally living up to her middle name, Joy. She is so fun and full of joy. She laughs a lot and she is making us laugh. At dinner tonight, Anne said it is kind of like living with Boo, the little girl from Monsters, Inc. who talks in gibberish. She is very chatty, and doesn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that we can't understand or speak Chinese. That is not stopping her from telling us what is on her mind and ordering us around like the princess she is.

This morning, we had our guide help us send some of our clothes out to be laundered. The hotel laundry service is quite expensive, so they said they could get us a better deal with a local launderer. Knowing that, we only packed clothes for about a week. Last night, Anne washed some of our stuff in the bathtub, but as it dried, it was stretching out and getting crunchy (not good qualities in underwear), so we decided to have it done. Most of the things we've done in China have been pretty cheap (since 1 US Dollar = 6 Chinese RMB), but not laundry. It ended up costing us $70. But, it is worth it since we don't have to have crunchy underwear or carry an extra suitcase. 

Right before the guide was in our room sorting out the laundry issue, Anne and Ruthie had been coloring together. Ruthie kept drawing circles and saying the same word. She showed the guide, who told us that she was drawing apples. So smart! She was also able to recognize her shapes and colors. 

After we got the laundry sorted out, we went out to see the Nanjing City Wall. The wall dates back to the Ming Dynasty and was built in the 1300s. Many parts have been destroyed, and some have been rebuilt. The city gate we went to was very impressive. As we were walking up the steps, Ruthie was counting in Chinese along with our guide. Pretty smart 4 year old.

On the way back from visiting the wall, we stopped to do a little bit of shopping with the other American couple who is with us. We found a few souvenirs, and we stopped at a convenience store to get swim caps. The hotel staff at the pool said we needed them if we wanted to swim. All they had was 6 caps, so we bought the store out, strangely, they were the right size for us all.

After Ruthie's nap time we went down to the pool and swam for a bit. She's not fond of swimming, but she did get in the water with Anne's help. She still is pretty leery of Kris, but we're learning that is common for an orphan who has never been around men at all. We know she'll come around, because in her happier moments she is slightly comfortable with kissing Kris and holding his hand on the escalator and that sort of thing.

After swimming we relaxed for a while, and Ruthie watched TV. Mostly, she just likes flipping around the channels and being in charge of the remote. Anne had some fun with her and the remote control, which you can see in this video: 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/IMG_2175.MOV

We ventured out for dinner in the mall (since we had eaten lunch from the marketplace in our room), and Ruthie had us in stitches. She's silly, expressive, and loves playing with the kids. Her personality has won us over, so we can see why the orphanage enjoyed her so much. We've had a lot of fun with her today, but we are ready to get her home and settling in. 

Side note: We love reading the comments you are all posting. When someone comments, we get an email, so we can read the comments, but we're not able to respond at this point. But, keep 'em coming, as it is encouraging to us to know so many folks are praying for us and wishing us well.

Day 8

Today started off early again. Every time Ruthie awakens from sleep or from a nap, it is a bit like starting over. She is weepy and seems a bit disoriented and closed off. But, after a few minutes, she warms back up. 

We had another fun breakfast at the hotel. Ruthie enjoys leaving the room, and loves to see herself in the elevator mirror.

After breakfast, we went to the Nanjing massacre museum. Nanjing used to be the capital of China, and in 1937, the Japanese attacked Shanghai and then moved up the river to Nanjing. When they reached Nanjing, they attacked the city from 3 sides, bombing extensively and killing 300,000 innocent people in the process (more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined). It is one of the most atrocious acts in wartime history, and countries all over the globe spoke out against what had happened. I won't go into much more detail, because you can google it to find out more, but it is essentially the Chinese holocaust.

The museum was very well done, and was incredibly moving. I think, too, we all needed some emotional release. One of the most fascinating aspects of what we read at the museum said that the Japanese media was in a frenzy to cover the advance of the Japanese troops into China. As a result, many of the Japanese soldiers were particularly interested in doing "heroic" things so that they could bring honor to their country through the media. So, on some level, the over-hyped media coverage was to blame for the extent of what happened. A fascinating commentary for our times.

Our guide shared with me that to this day, many Chinese dislike the Japanese. She said that in Nanjing, no one will buy a Japanese made car, or will support Japanese businesses. 

After leaving the museum, we traveled to a jade store. They pulled out all the stops for the American tourists, setting us up in a swanky back room, serving us tea, and then telling us all about new jade, old jade, and Jadeite. Of course, jade is very popular in China, especially for women. Interestingly, jade is not native to the Nanjing area, but Nanjing is known for intricate carving. That is a skill that was honed here, and apparently they still do a lot of hand carving here. The store was fun to look around at, because of all the carved pieces. We ended up getting small jade animals for each of our kids, and they have enjoyed them. Ruthie in particular keeps showing us her necklace that we got, so that is fun. It was also fun to bargain with them over the price, since that is not something we get to do every day.

At the store, many of the young ladies who worked there were fascinated with Calla's hair. They asked us a lot of questions about her and about her hair. Of course they asked about Ruthie, too, and the store manager told us, "You have a good heart."

By the time we were done there, Ruthie was pretty tired. The other couple we were with wanted to go to the IKEA and eat lunch there, but we didn't think that was a good idea. Our guide was going to take us to a local Shanghaiese restaurant with dumplings and noodles, but the other couple didn't want that.  

Because the kids were tired, we settled on going to the market in the mall (the same one having the American Food Festival) where they will cook you fried rice to order. This worked out well, especially because our guide offered to help us order. We got some rice and fried dumplings. On the way back to our room, we walked through a different part of the mall (did I mention how big this mall is?) and we walked past a Subway restaurant and a Papa Johns (didn't see that coming). So, we treated ourselves to Subway for dinner, since the kids like that. We got sandwiches and chips. All the flavors of chips here are much different than in the US, but the Subway had "Texas Barbecue" flavor Lays, so we couldn't resist. We should have resisted, in hindsight.

After Ruthie's nap, we ventured out of the hotel. We are walking distance from a Confucian temple, so we went to see that. Our guide said that it is not really a temple in the true sense, but it is more of a gathering place for shopping and that sort of thing. And, she was right. It was basically an outdoor mall built around an old temple building. The building was pretty, but the shops were mostly junk. There were a few interesting stores, but not many. Still, it was nice to walk around and kill some time in a place that was not the mall. One store that caught our eye was a store that sold leather bags and belts, called "Mexican." The sign even had a picture of a guy in a sombrero and pancho. Weird.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with Anne doing laundry in the hotel bathtub and Kris working. Elliott continues to watch Chinese cartoons on TV. Ruthie followed Anne around the room like  a little shadow, but was less clingy, so that is good. She let Anne give her a bath for the first time, so we're glad about that. Some other fun things we learned about her today: we taught her to say "belly button," in English and she keeps saying it over and over for fun. Several months ago, we mailed her a care package with a few things, including a board book called "The Belly Button Book." We've been reading it to her at bedtime and nap time. She also enjoys fist bumps and high fives, with all of us. She gave us all kisses (though Kris' beard kind of surprised her). And, she loves seeing her pictures and video on our iPhones. As we wound down into bed, she went around kissing all of us and high fiving and fist bumping us all. Then, it was like someone flipped a switch and she was out.  

Random travel tip: simplynoise.com is a fantastic website for when you are sleeping away from home. It is just a white noise generator that helps everyone sleep. Especially when there is a weird Chinese concert happening on the street outside your hotel.